Boys Hoops: Emmaus storms back in second half to beat Nazareth

When standout center Zach Sabol was whistled for his fourth personal foul with 5:23 left in the third quarter Tuesday night, Emmaus boys basketball coach Steve Yoder shook his head and inserted Josh Moyer into the lineup.

As he checked into the game, Yoder said to the 6-foot-9 but seldom-used Moyer: “OK, big fella, this is your time to shine.”

Emmaus led Nazareth 37-36 at the time.

When Sabol returned with 4:14 left in regulation, the Green Hornets were up 51-47.

Moyer only scored two points but gave Emmaus solid defensive play and rebounding. He was one of several unsung heroes as the Green Hornets came back from a nine-point halftime deficit to beat the visiting Blue Eagles 64-60 in a hard-fought, entertaining Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game.

PHOTO GALLERY: Emmaus played Nazareth High School boys basketball at Emmaus High School Tuesday night. Emmaus won.

(Amy Shortell/THE MORNING CALL)

Emmaus, ranked No. 10 in Class 6A in the latest state poll, remained the only unbeaten team in the EPC just 11 days into the season.

It looked like the Green Hornets would join the other 17 EPC teams with a loss when Nazareth outscored Emmaus 19-11 in the second quarter and took a 36-27 halftime lead.

“We showed the depth of our team tonight,” Yoder said. “Our team really showed me a lot tonight, and I told them before the game that I was anxious to see how they would respond because we had some adversity with some guys being sick. This was a great win.”

Second half surge

The Green Hornets (4-0, 3-0) scored the first 10 points of the third quarter, holding Nazareth scoreless for nearly four minutes.

The Blue Eagles (3-2, 2-1) came back briefly to go up 41-39, but Emmaus answered with six straight points. Mark Swedberg, who was one of the players battling sickness, scored four of his 16 points in that stretch.

It was 45-45 early in the final period when the Green Hornets went on a 10-2 run to take command.

“It comes down to missed layups … we had three or four open layups we missed … and we were less than 50 percent from the foul line,” Nazareth coach Joe Arndt said. “They were more aggressive defensively and took us out of our rhythm in the second half. We weren’t coming off screens and attacking the basket like we did in the first half.”

Moyer’s moment

Yoder was pleased with the play of Moyer.

”I’ve been telling Josh over and over again in practice that he’s going to get his moment,” Yoder said. “He’s worked so hard and he’s such a great kid. He really logged huge minutes for us. We didn’t miss Zach as much as a lot of people thought we would.”

Moyer, who totaled five rebounds, a steal, an assist and two hustle plays, said he was ready to contribute.

“Every game is different and we had sicknesses going around and we got in foul trouble, so you always got to be ready to go in there and pick up the pace,” he said. “When Zach’s out, you just have to step up and help us play as a team. It feels great to go in there and help us win.”

Diehl’s deal

Bryce Diehl didn’t score in the first half, but worked hard defensively to minimize the damage of Nazareth’s Zach Umar, one of the area’s top 3-point shooters.

Umar had a pair of treys in the first half, but just one in the second half, and that came in the final seconds with the Emmaus students chanting “Warm the buses!”

“I think anyone who knows basketball could appreciate the job that Bryce Diehl did on him,” Yoder said. “Umar is a beast averaging six 3-pointers per game. Bryce chased him all over the floor and had a big second half himself scoring the ball.

Diehl finished with 13 points, eight of them coming in the fourth quarter.

“Nazareth has a bunch of scorers, so we were just doing our best to lock each one down and try to allow as little as we could,” Diehl said. “We did it by playing good team defense. At halftime, we didn’t talk about much. We went through ways to beat their zone defense, which gave us trouble and we just came out hot. We’re a good third quarter team.”

What’s next

Emmaus will host Central Catholic on Friday night in a battle of state-ranked teams, while Nazareth will host a Northampton team feeling good after beating Parkland 47-44 Tuesday night.